I like my tea sweet, and generally add several cubes of white sugar. Teavana sells rock sugar, which it claims is somehow "better" while being vague on what that means. Is it sweeter? Less sweet? Somehow interacts with the tea leaves differently?
Interesting, you're meant to brew it with the leaves, presumably sweetening the whole pot rather than doing it to taste for individuals, which sounds annoying. Is that just marketing or does that have some benefit?
Best Answer
It appears to be brown sugar instead of white sugar. So there will be some flavor difference from less refining (e.g., more molasses remaining)
You could pick up turbinado sugar at the grocery store, which will probably taste just about the same, for much less money.
edit: I should also note that honey makes a good sweetener for tea as well, depending on the type of tea. You could use normal brown sugar as well. Maple sugar (or syrup) goes in some... there are a lot of sweeteners you can use, and most of them you can get fairly cheaply at the grocery store so you can experiment. (Except maple, I suppose, which is just expensive)